Labelling machines



May 6, 1958 T. v. AscoT-r LABELLING MACHINES Filed March l, 1955 F/GS.

United States PatentOtice 2,833,439 Patented May 6, 1958 LABELLING MACHINES Thomas Vincent Scott, Sheileld, England, assignor to Morgan Fairest Limited, Shefleld, England Application March 1, 1955, Serial No. 491,428

1 Claim. (Cl. 216,-55)

This invention relates to top-strapping means for labelling machines, i. e., means for performing the operation on bottles of applying a strap-like label over the head of a screwed stopper and down each side of the end of the bottle neck.

One object of the invention is to provide top-strapping means that are light and rapid in operation as regards its moving parts, Another object is to provide means to apply a progressively increasing pressure during the shaping of the ends of the label to the contour of the stopper and the end of the bottle neck.

According to the invention, top-strapping means for a bottle-labelling machine comprises a head body containing a central plunger movable against spring action lengthwise of the body, suction openings in faces in an end of the body to each side of the limiting position reached by the end of the plunger under spring action, a slider movable in the same direction as the plunger against separate spring action, a projection on the plunger to engage the slide after partial movement of the plunger, a pair of blocks within the body at opposite sides of the plunger, resilient inner faces on the blocks, pairs of parallel links connecting each block to the adjacent side of the body, and connecting means between the slider and the blocks to cause the latter to follow the lengthwise movements of the former with inwards and outward swinging movements on the parallel links.

The connecting means also are preferably links, which swing inwards and outwards with the blocks as they impose the swinging movements on the blocks.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which- Figure l is a side elevation of a top-strapping head, a part being broken away;

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an underneath plan, with a bottom plate removed.

A head body 1, carried by an overhead support 2, contains a central plunger 3, slidable lengthwise against the action of a spring 4 in the bore 5 of a slider 6, movable in the same direction against a second spring 7 in the bore 8 of the body 1. When a shoulder 9 on the slider 6 rests on stops 10, and the lock nuts 11 of the plunger 3 rest on a shoulder 12 in the slider 6, a resilient pad 13 at the lower end of the plunger is flush with resilient pads 14 on a bottom plate 15 of the body 1. Suction is applied via passages 16 (from connections-not shownto an external source) to openings 17 in the faces of the pads 15. A similar opening 18 in the face of the pad 13 is supplied with suction via the bore 19 of the plunger 3, a nipple 2l) providing for connection to an Outside source.

With a label 20 applied (gummed-side down) across the pads 13, 14, and a bottle 21 lifted so that the upper face of its stopper 22 rst traps the label to the face 13 and then pushes the plunger 3 upwards into the head 1, a

projection 23 on the plunger comes into contact with the lower end 24 of the slider 6, and the slider 6 is pushed upwards. Pairs of links 25 depend from each side of the slider 6 in the enlarged lower portion 26 of the head 1 and the lower end of one link of each pair is pivoted to a block 27, so` that opposite sides of each block are supported by two of the links. Consequently, the blocks 27 rise with the slider 6.

Each block 27 is connected by two pairs of parallel links 28 from the wall of the portion 26 of the head 1, the links occupying the inclined positions shown in Figure 2 when the blocks 27 rest on the bottom plate 15. When the slider 6 lifts the blocks 27, the links 23 force the blocks inwardly towards the plunger 3, the links 25 swinging to follow the movement of the blocks. Each block 27 carries a part-circular resilient pad 29 to surround the neck of the bottle 2l in the initial lift of the plunger, i. e., before the plunger lifts the slider 6.

With the label 20 held at its ends by suction on its ungummed side to the pads 13, 14, the movement of the bottle neck into the head 1 causes the two ends of the label to be drawn from the pads 14 and to lie loosely between the neck of the bottle and the resilient pads 29 of the blocks 27. When the continued movement of the plunger 3 causes it to move the slider 6, and this in turn moves the blocks 27, the blocks swing inwardly on the links 28 to cause the pads 29 to press the ends of the label on to the edges of the stopper 22 and on to the sides of the mouth end of the neck of the bottle. Because of the resilience of the pads 29, the label 20 is pressed with its gummed side conforming very closely to the stopper and the bottle. The lengthwise hollowing of these pads (Figure 3) makes them conform generally to the curvature of the mouth end, and the resilient material may be thick enough to accommodate various diameters of bottle mouths.

With the links 28 becoming less inclined with progressive movement of the slider 6 by the plunger 3, the inward movement of the blocks 27 is at rst rapid, followed by a slower movement accompanied by an increasing pressure on the label ends. The movement may end with the links having slightly passed through and beyond a plane normal to the axis of the bottle, so that the pressure is slightly relaxed. As the reverse movement between the bottle and the head begins, the pressure is again restored, after which it diminishes until the block perform the final rapid outward movement.

The swinging mounting of the blocks 27, and the swinging link connections 28 between the blocks and the slider 6, call for very little effort to be imparted additionally to that required to compress first the spring 4 and then both the springs d and 'l'. And the springs need only be strong enough to return the plunger 3 to the flush position of its pad 13 with the pads llland to return the slider 6 and the blocks 27.

For continuous top-strapping of a sequence of bottles, a number of heads 1 may be carried above a corresponding series of bottle supports by a circular overhead support 2, all rotatable about a vertical axis, with means to feed bottles to and from the supports, and cam or like means to lift and lower the supports so as to bring each stoppered bottle mouth into and out of the corresponding head after a label has been applied, gummed side clown, to the suction openings in the head. Alternatively, the heads may be lowered and lifted with respect to the bottle supports.

What I claim is:

A head for applying top-strap labels to screw-stoppered bottles of the kind comprising a body, a plunger movable lengthwise of the body by contact with the stopper of a bottle, a slider also movable lengthwise by Contact with the plunger, both movements being against spring slider so that movement of the sliderby contact with the 0 plunger moved by a bottle causes the blocks to move towards the sides of the mouth of the bottle, said head comprising pairs of parallel links inclined downwardly and inwardly from the body to support each of the blocks, and upstanding links pivotally connected at opposite ends to said slider and said blocks further supporting each of said blocks, so that the movement of the slider imparted to the blocks produces purely swinging inward and outward movements of each block by pivotal movement of the links, with the pairs of links constraining each block to move parallel to itself during such movements, said blocks thus being supported and moved by means of links.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,284,311 Von Hofe May 26, 1942 2,579,775 Allen et al Dec. 25, 1951 2,643,805 AMuller June 30, 1953 2,662,679 Sonnenberg Dec. 15, 1953 2,695,721 Fairest et al Nov. 30, 1954 

